LORD RIPON AND GENERAL GORDON
(1880-1885)
I thank God for all He is doing in India through Lord
Ripon.--FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (1884).
General Gordon was the bravest of men where God's cause and that of
others was concerned, and his courage rose with loneliness. He was
the meekest of men where himself only was concerned. You could not
say he was the most unselfish of men: he had no self.--FLORENCE
NIGHTINGALE (1886).
"SOUTH STREET, _Feb._ 2 [1880]. DEAREST--My dear mother fell asleep just
after midnight, after much weariness and painfulness. The last three
hours were in beautiful peace and all through she had been able to
listen to and to repeat her favourite hymns and prayers, and to smile a
smile as if she said, 'I'm dying: it's all right.' Then she composed her
own self to death at 9 last night: folded her hands: closed her own
eyes: laid herself down, and in three hours she was gone to a Greater
Love than ours.... Do you remember what Ezekiel says: 'And at eve my
wife died: and I did in the morning as I was commanded.'"[194] Miss
Nightingale's mother had almost completed her 93rd year. Queen Victoria
sent a message of sympathy to which Miss Nightingale replied with
particulars of the last hours such as Her Majesty was known to like, and
she asked leave to address a letter to the Empress of India on the
condition of that country. Permission was granted, and "doing in the
morning as she was commanded" Miss Nightingale turned from thoughts of
her mother's death to the grievances of the Indian peoples and composed
in general terms a plea for their redress. The Queen made no response,
but presently she sent a copy of the _Life of the Prince Consort_. The
_Life_ contains much information about the famous Proclamation to the
People of India, in which the Queen and the Prince Consort had been
personally concerned, and Miss Nightingale made use of the fact when she
next had an opportunity of addressing her Sovereign on Indian subjects.
[194] Letter to Miss Pringle.
Meanwhile, Miss Nightingale was suffering from nervous collapse, and the
doctors ordered sea air. She went for three weeks to the Granville
Hotel, Ramsgate, but the change did her little good. "The doctors tell
me," she wrote to Miss Pringle (March 28), "I must be 'free' for at
least a year 'from the responsibilities which have been forced upon me'
(and which, they might say, I have so ill fulfilled) and from 'letters.'
But when is that year to come? I believe, however, I must go away again
for a time, if only to work up the arrears of my Indian work, which
weigh heavily on my mind." She went in April for a few weeks to Seaton,
where Lady Ashburton had placed Seaforth Lodge at her disposal. She was
not to be disturbed, but her hostess came from Melchet for a few days,
and had, as she wrote, "the deep joy of communion with my beloved." In
the following month Miss Nightingale spent some days at Claydon, where
in subsequent years she often stayed for a longer time, taking much
interest in local affairs there. Her sister was now and henceforth an
invalid, suffering sadly from rheumatic arthritis. Nothing cheered her
so much, said Sir Harry Verney, as her sister's society, and now that
Mrs. Nightingale's death made visits to Lea Hurst less imperative they
hoped that Florence "would treat Claydon more as a home" than
heretofore. She did as she was bidden, and for several years paid an
annual visit to Claydon, where "Florence Nightingale's room" is still
shown. For the rest, Miss Nightingale's life continued on the old
lines,[195] and whether at Claydon or in South Street the Sabbatical
year of freedom from responsibilities, letters, interviews, and
Blue-books did not come.
[195] Except that in March 1881 she spent ten days at the Seaford Bay
Hotel.
II
In the spring of 1880, Miss Nightingale was intensely interested in the
elections. Her dislike of Lord Beaconsfield's policy, her recent
intercourse with Mr. Gladstone, her hopes for India, her interest in the
Verneys, as well as her own sympathy with liberal ideas and the
Liberalism traditional in her family, made her a stout partisan. "I
hope, dearest," she wrote to a nursing friend (March 28), "you care
about the elections. You are in the thick of them. Sir Harry with
patriotic pluck is in his 79th year fighting a losing battle at
Buckingham.[196] But what delights me is that the Liberal side find that
the labourers and the working man have waked up during the last 6 years
to interests entirely new to them. Then, 6 years ago, we could hardly
get a hearing: now men jam themselves into small hot rooms, struggling
for standing-room while for 3 hours they listen to political talk.
Whether we win or not, such interest will never die." When the Liberal
victory was complete, she was eager, like the rest of the political
world, to know who would be Prime Minister, and more anxious than other
people (except the few personally concerned) to know who would succeed
Lord Lytton as Viceroy of India. Sir Harry Verney sent her the latest
rumours from the Row in the morning and from the Clubs in the afternoon.
She must have been greatly pleased when Lord Ripon's appointment to
India was announced; but curiously there is no note about it, nor any
record of a visit from him, nor at this stage any correspondence. They
were, however, old friends; and as soon as Lord Ripon set to work in
India, correspondence, at once cordial and confidential, began. Advocacy
of Lord Ripon's Indian policy was indeed one of the absorbing interests
which occupied Miss Nightingale during the years covered in the present
chapter. Her other main preoccupation was the state of the Army
Medical and Hospital service--a matter which became urgent in connection
with the campaigns in South Africa, Egypt, and the Soudan.
[196] Sir Harry, however, won the battle.
These two branches of work now occupied the front; but they did not
cause Miss Nightingale to abandon other responsibilities, and the
reader must supply a background of the various kinds of work described
in earlier chapters. She was still busy with details of Indian
sanitation, for the _Sanitary Annual_ was still submitted to her
revision. She was still consulted on questions of nursing administration
and hospital construction. "They are in difficulties," wrote Sir Harry
Verney (Jan. 30, 1881), in forwarding an application of this kind; "so
they appeal to you--the Family Solicitor to whom we all turn when we get
into a scrape, but your Family is a large one--the whole human race."
She still filled the part of Lady Bountiful, with more than that lady's
usual care for detail, to her poorer neighbours in the country. The
Working-Men's Institute at Holloway (near Lea Hurst) referred to her the
question whether playing-cards should be admitted. She was in favour of
the cards, but a majority of the Committee were against them, and,
before giving her opinion, she conducted an inquiry as elaborate and
far-searching as if it were a case of cholera. And more assiduously,
rather than less, did she devote herself to the affairs of the
Nightingale School and its old pupils. There are years at this period
during which as many as 400 letters from nurses were preserved in this
sort, and there are Sisters to each of whom more than fifty letters were
written. She introduced the innovation of sending her probationers to
the National Training School of Cookery, and she looked over their notes
on the lessons, founding thereon hints to the teachers. The extension of
trained nursing in workhouse infirmaries called for more Nightingale
nurses. "Yesterday," she wrote to Madame Mohl (June 30, 1881), "we
opened the new Marylebone Infirmary (760 beds). We nurse it with our
trained nurses, thank God! I have each of these women to see for three
or four hours alone before she begins work." It was during this period
that Miss Nightingale paid her first visit to the new St. Thomas's
Hospital. She drove there on January 27, 1882, and inspected the
quarters of her Training School and one of the Hospital wards. "Just one
week has elapsed," wrote the Matron (Feb. 4), "since you honoured us
with your more than welcome presence, and I cannot go to bed to-night
until I have thanked you for all the admiration in which you speak of
_your Home_ and the pretty Alexandra Ward. No words of mine can ever
express the delight it gave us to welcome you, our dearly loved Chief,
to the Home and School which has for more than 20 years borne 'her
honoured name.'" The time was drawing near when pupils of the School
were to follow in the footsteps of their Chief and do nursing service in
the East.
III
In April 1880 a notable addition was made to Miss Nightingale's hero
friends. General Gordon introduced himself to her in order to introduce
his cousin, Mrs. Hawthorn. She was the wife of a Colonel in the
Engineers, and devoted herself to good work in military hospitals. She
had been painfully impressed by the inefficiency of the orderlies, and
had begged General Gordon to "go to Miss Nightingale" in the matter. The
character of "Chinese Gordon" was already most sympathetic to Miss
Nightingale, and the personal touch now heightened her admiration. She
gained at the same time in his cousin a friend to whom she became warmly
attached, and who served as eyes and ears for her in a way which enabled
her to forward useful reforms. General Gordon's letters appealed
strongly to Miss Nightingale as those of a kindred soul:--
(_General Gordon to Miss Nightingale._) _April_ 22 [1880]. In these
days when so much is talked of the prestige of England, &c., &c. I
cannot help feeling a bitter sentiment when one considers how
little we care for those near and how we profess to care for those
afar off. You wrote some kind words on your card when I called, and
I am much obliged for them, but I do not think that I have done
1/20 part or suffered anything like the nurse of a hospital who,
forgotten by the world, drudges on in obscurity. (_April_ 29.) I do
not know the details myself. I took up the paper on the entreaties
of my cousin, feeling sure that the truest way to gain recruits to
our army would be by so remedying the defects and alleviating the
sufferings of soldiers that universally should it be acknowledged
that the soldier is cared for in every way. Decorations may
popularise the army to the few, but proper and considerate
attention to the many is needed to do so to the public. To my mind
it is astonishing how great people, who have all the power to
remedy these little defects, who pride themselves on the prestige
of our name, whose time must hang so very heavily on their hands,
can remain year after year heedless of the sick and afflicted. I
speak from experience when I say that both in China and Soudan, I
gained the hearts of my soldiers (who would do anything for me) not
by my justice, &c., but by looking after them when sick and
wounded, and by continually visiting the Hospitals.... [If you
cannot help us] well! I fall back on my verse "If thou seest the
oppression of the poor and violent perversity of judgment marvel
not at it, for He that is higher than the Highest regardeth it."
Miss Nightingale took the matter up at once. She put the case into form,
and submitted it, through Sir Harry Verney, to the Secretary for War,
Mr. Childers, who promised to look into it. Presently he called for a
report on hospital nursing by orderlies, and in August the Departmental
answer was forwarded to Miss Nightingale. "I have seen such answers,"
she wrote,[197] "at the Crimean war time. 'The patient has died of
neglect and want of proper attendance; but by Regulations should not
have died; therefore the allegation that he is dead is disposed of.'" In
this case the allegations were not disposed of, as we shall hear
presently.
[197] To Captain Galton, August 21, 1880.
Early in May General Gordon left England as private secretary to Lord
Ripon, and before starting he sent one of his "little books of comfort"
to Miss Nightingale. He resigned the incongruous appointment almost as
soon as he had reached India, and after a special mission in China
returned to England. He saw Miss Nightingale and announced his intention
of going to Syria. Miss Nightingale upbraided him. His past claimed more
of his future than a tour of curiosity in the East. Why should he not
return to India in an unofficial character? She could tell him of much
work to do there:--
(_General Gordon to Miss Nightingale._) SOUTHAMPTON, _April_ 4
[1881]. You have written most kindly and far too highly of me, for
I find no responding tone in my heart to make me claim such praise.
I will explain exactly how I am situated. I consider my life done,
that I can never aspire to or seek employment, when one's voice
must be stilled to some particular note; therefore I say _it_ is done,
and the only thing now left to me is to drift along to its natural end
and in the endeavour to do what little good one may be able to do.
Syria is, to me, no land of attraction, all lands are indifferent. I
go for no desire of curiosity, but simply because it is a quiet land
and a land where small means can do much good. That is all my reason
for going there. I would have gone to the Cape. I would have gone to
India as you suggest, but I would never do so if I had to accept the
shibboleth of the Indian or Colonial official classes.... My life
is truly to me a straw, but I must live. Would that it could go to
give you and all others the sense that they are all risen in Christ
even now, even if it was at the cost of my eternal existence--such
is the love I have for my fellow-creatures, but the door is shut. I
cannot live in England; for though I have many many millions in my
Home, I am only put on short allowance here, tho' it is ample for
me with my wants. I cannot visit the sick in London: it is too
expensive. I can do so in Syria, and where the sick are, there is
our Lord. I would do anything I could for India, but I feel sure my
advent there would not be allowed.
The time was presently to come when Gordon's wish was in a way he knew
not to be granted, and his death was to be an inspiration unto many. For
the present, Miss Nightingale hoped for the Cape or some other Colonial
duty rather than Syria; and Sir Harry Verney wrote to Mr. Gladstone on
the matter, mentioning her name. This she had not intended. Never
reluctant to intervene in cases which might be considered within her
competence, she had the strongest objection to weakening her influence
by any appearance of meddling in matters wherein she had no better right
to express an opinion than anybody else. She scolded Sir Harry severely
for his indiscretion; but Mr. Gladstone sent a friendly answer (April
26): "he will make the circumstances known to Lord Kimberley who, he is
sure, will, like himself, desire to turn Colonel Gordon's services to
account." Gordon, meanwhile, whose rapid changes of intention must at
this time have been puzzling to his friends, had accepted a military
appointment at Mauritius, which, however, was soon followed by one at
the Cape. Before leaving England, he again sent Miss Nightingale some
of his little books.[198] She never saw or heard directly from him
again; but from Brussels, on the day before his fateful interview with
the British Cabinet in London, he wrote to Sir Harry Verney (Jan. 17,
1884): "I daily come and see you in spirit--you and Miss Nightingale."
And from Khartoum (Feb. 26): "I am among the ruins of a Government, and
it is not cheerful work. However, many pray for me, and if it is God's
will, I shall hope to get all things quieted down ere long. There is not
much human hope in my wish, but I force myself to trust Him. Indeed one
ought to be content with His help, and in fact can lean on no other, for
I have none. Unless He will turn the hearts of men towards peace, I have
no hope. I wish I could have called and seen you and Miss Nightingale,
but I had no time." After his death, she took for some years a lively
interest in the management of the Gordon Boys' Home. It was at a meeting
in connection with it that her words, quoted at the head of this
chapter, were read.[199]
[198] Namely, _Short Notes_ (Bible readings), and thoughts on the Holy
Communion entitled _Thou shalt not eat, Take eat_. Miss
Nightingale's presentation copies of Gordon's privately printed
booklets included also his _Remarks on Expenditure in India_
(1881).
[199] Letter read at a meeting held at Aldershot in support of the
Gordon Boys' Home, August 30, 1886.
IV
During the years 1881 and 1882 Miss Nightingale was very busy with
Indian questions, and when Lord Ripon's policy was disclosed, he became
a hero to her almost comparable to General Gordon. In forwarding to Lord
Ripon a copy of one of her Indian pieces, she sent her "deepest
reverence and highest hopes for all the great measures by which the
Viceroy is bringing peace to the people of India and fulfilling
England's pledges. And the love and blessing of India's people be upon
him!" Readers of the present generation, who do not remember the
political controversies of thirty years ago, and who are familiar with
experiments in Indian reform, more daring in some respects than any
which Lord Ripon attempted, may wonder at Miss Nightingale's enthusiasm.
But it was very natural to one holding her views at the time. The
admiration which she felt for Lord Ripon and his policy was equalled by
the passionate detestation felt by the larger, if not the better, part
of Anglo-Indian opinion. The opposition to the "Ilbert Bill," named
after the member of the Legislative Council who introduced it, was
intensely bitter; that to some other branches of Lord Ripon's policy,
hardly less so. Miss Nightingale was behind the scenes both at Calcutta
or Simla and in London: in India by confidential communications from
Lord Ripon himself, in London through friends in the India Office. She
knew how uncertain was the support he received in his own Council, and
how strong was the opposition in the Council in Downing Street. He was a
good man fighting against adversity, and she was eager to do what she
could to help him. His reforms were also hers. She had spent years of
labour in mastering the intricacies of land tenure in India. For years
her heart had been full of the grievances of the cultivators. And now
Lord Ripon had prepared Land Reform Bills for Bengal and Oudh which, if
passed, would give the ryot security against oppression. She had thought
much and written something on Indian education.[200] It was "not
enough," she had said, "to read Locke and Mill." She wanted an education
which would teach the peoples of India to be "men," which would
encourage them to the better cultivation of agriculture and industries,
which would enable every _patel_ (village headman) to understand and
enforce the principles of sanitation. And Lord Ripon had appointed an
Education Commission (1882), from which some useful reforms followed. As
for the "Ilbert Bill," which sought to confer upon duly qualified native
judges powers equal to their position, it was in Miss Nightingale's eyes
a measure of simple justice and duty; it was an honest fulfilment,
within its scope, of the Proclamation of 1858, in which the Queen
declared her pleasure, that as far as may be "Our subjects of whatever
race or creed be impartially admitted to Our service, the duties of
which they may be qualified by their education, ability, and integrity
duly to discharge." Lord Ripon's measures in the direction of local
self-government similarly appealed to Miss Nightingale. It has been
thought by some that Lord Ripon attempted too much and allowed too
little for Lord Salisbury's "periods of Indian cosmogony." But in these
matters some one must begin; and if some of the hopes raised by Lord
Ripon's pronouncements have been doomed to disappointment, the fears of
his more frantic opponents have been in at least equal measure belied by
the event. Miss Nightingale was among those with whom hope ran highest.
Her fundamental doctrine of human perfectibility by Divine order
encouraged her to see in Lord Ripon the Providential instrument of vast
changes. She approved whole-heartedly of all that he actually proposed,
writing him letters of enthusiastic encouragement, and she also plied
him with suggestions of further reforms. In particular, she sent him a
scheme--in which Captain Galton, Dr. Sutherland, and Sir Richard Temple
collaborated with her--for village sanitation in India. She regarded his
Viceroyalty almost as the beginning of the millennium.
[200] See Bibliography A, No. 100.
Miss Nightingale, however, was no idle or vague enthusiast. She was one
of those who, while they fix their eyes on the stars, keep their feet
firmly planted on the ground. She was as indefatigable as ever in
mastering every detail, a process in which Lord Ripon's supply of
Minutes and other documents provided abundant material, and she
continued to see and correspond with every available Anglo-Indian or
Indian who could help her, or whom she could hope to influence. There
were two main lines on which her activities moved. "India says," she
wrote, "'We want all the help you can give us from home.'" So, then, she
devoted herself, in the first place, to the support of Lord Ripon's
policy. She was constant in inspiring sympathisers at home to fresh
exertions. She suggested meetings and propaganda. She wrote articles and
assisted others to write. She was in constant communication with Sir
William Wedderburn. She made the acquaintance of Mr. A. O. Hume, "the
father of the Indian National Congress." She saw Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji,
Mr. Lalmohun Ghose, and other Indian gentlemen. But Miss Nightingale had
no fanatical belief in the value of legislative reforms in themselves.
They are worth no more than the public opinion and the individual
effort which they express or inspire. If Lord Ripon's policy was indeed
to inaugurate a millennium in India, there must be a new zeal alike in
Anglo-Indian administration and among the more educated classes of
India. In her interviews with the latter, she was constant in impressing
upon them how much each one might do in promoting sanitation and
education. She took a lively interest in the Zenana mission. She saw
Mrs. Scharlieb when that lady went out to practise medicine in India,
corresponded with her, and gave her introductions. Lord Roberts came to
see her (June 1881) before taking up his appointment as
Commander-in-Chief in Madras. Mr. Ilbert had seen her before going out
as judicial member of the Governor-General's Council, and they kept up a
correspondence. Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff similarly called on his
appointment to the Governorship of Madras (June 1881), and throughout
his term of office he wrote reporting progress on all matters likely to
interest her.
Miss Nightingale was particularly interested in agricultural development
and education. She saw much of Sir James Caird, and corresponded with
Mr. W. R. Robertson, the Principal of the Agricultural College in
Madras. Candidates selected for the Indian Civil Service were now given
the option of a year's study at the University before going out, and at
Balliol Mr. Arnold Toynbee was appointed a lecturer to them. Miss
Nightingale made his acquaintance, and corresponded with him. "I know
nothing," she wrote (May 30, 1882), "that tells so soon, so widely, so
vigorously as Indian Civil Service administration. Balliol sends forth
her raw missionaries; and in four years from the time he was an
undergraduate, see what a man may do!" "Could not some instruction be
given," she suggested (Oct. 20, 1882), "in agriculture and forestry," so
as "at least to direct your students' attention to what are the peculiar
wants of India, a knowledge often absent in her rulers? In agricultural
chemistry, in botany (as regards plants and woods), in geology (as
regards soils and water-supply), in forestry (as regards rainfall and
fuel), in animal physiology (as regards breeds, fodder, and
cattle-diseases), there is much ignorance in India. What if Scientific
Agriculture could be taught at Oxford?" These things have of late years
been done both at Oxford and at Cambridge. Then Miss Nightingale
discussed with Mr. Toynbee the importance of familiarizing the students
with the agrarian conditions in India, "so as to open the minds of these
future administrators and judges to the real significance of their
position and its responsibilities." To this end she induced her friend,
Sir George Campbell, to give a course of lectures at Oxford. Of her own
writings during this period[201] the most considerable was an elaborate
exposition and defence of Lord Ripon's Bengal Land Tenure Bill, of
which, as of his other measures, the fate was hanging in the balance.
This Paper--entitled in her fanciful way _The Dumb shall speak, and the
Deaf shall hear, or, The Ryot, the Zemindar, and the Government_--was
read (by Mr. Frederick Verney) at a meeting of the East India
Association at Exeter Hall on June 1, 1883, with Sir Bartle Frere in the
chair. It was well reported; there was a full attendance of
distinguished Anglo-Indians, and a lively discussion followed. Miss
Nightingale printed her Paper as a pamphlet and distributed it widely.
The discussion showed much difference of opinion, but every speaker paid
a tribute to Miss Nightingale's knowledge and devotion. There was one
who was able from personal experience to recall the thoughts of the
audience to other scenes wherein she had won her first renown. This was
Surgeon-Major Vincent Ambler. "I was sick in hospital at Balaclava," he
said, "and she nursed me through a long illness of Crimean fever. She
was with me, I might almost say, night and day, and it is to her good
nursing and energetic attention I owe my recovery. Previous to my
illness I had had experience of her friendship when at Scutari, where
the hospitals were crammed with dead and dying, and cholera was carrying
off hundreds of victims a day; it was amid such scenes as this that I
constantly beheld Miss Nightingale." Scenes not quite so terrible, but
yet not entirely different, had been witnessed at this time in other
fields of war; and Miss Nightingale, though no longer able to be in the
midst of them herself, played some part, nevertheless, in ministering to
the sick through her pupils, and in seeking to remedy defects in
administration which the test of war had once more revealed. To these
scenes, leaving Lord Ripon's measures trembling in the balance, we must
now turn.
[201] For the particulars, see Bibliography A, Nos. 97-99, 109-111.
V
The Egyptian campaign of 1882 called for female nurses, and Miss
Nightingale worked at high pressure in selecting them, and arranging
details of their outfit. "I have been working some days," she told
Mrs. Hawthorn (Aug. 3, 1882), "from 4.30 A.M. till 10 P.M." Mrs. Deeble,
of Netley, was in command of the female nursing corps, twenty-four
strong, in which several old pupils of the Nightingale School at St.
Thomas's were enrolled. They wrote repeatedly to their "Chief" at home,
and she sent them constant messages of advice and encouragement. "A
thousand thanks for your dear kind letter, which seems to have given me
fresh vigour to combat against our many difficulties." "How good and
kind you are to send me that welcome telegram. A few words now and then
from you are so cheering." There are hundreds of such notes. The spirit
of an old campaigner revived in Miss Nightingale as she read of stirring
deeds, whether earlier in South Africa or now in Egypt. Nor had her
"children" in the army altogether forgotten their old friend. There were
four men, wounded at Majuba, who were detained for some weeks in
hospital at Netley. They spent their time of convalescence in making a
patchwork quilt, and asked that it should be sent from them "to Florence
Nightingale." In November 1882 the Guards began to return from Egypt. A
regiment of them (Grenadiers) was under the command of Colonel Philip
Smith, a nephew of Sir Harry Verney, who persuaded Miss Nightingale to
drive to the station to see their arrival. She was deeply moved:--
_November_ 13 [1882]. For the first time for 25 years I went out to
see a sight--to Victoria Station to see the return of the Foot
Guards. Anybody might have been proud of these men's
appearance--like shabby skeletons, or at least half their former
size--in worn but well-cleaned campaigning uniform; not spruce or
showy, but alert, silent, steady. And not a man of them all, I am
sure, but thought he had nothing in what he had done to be proud
of; tho' _we_ might well be proud of _them_. Royalty was there with
its usual noble simplicity to bid them an unobtrusive welcome. The
men, not the Royalty, were to be all in all on that occasion. A
more deeply felt and less showy scene could not have been imagined.
So Miss Nightingale noted at the time, and presently she included her
description in one of the letters which she sent every now and then at
the Commanding Officer's request for him to read out to the men of the
Volunteer Corps at Romsey, near her old home. She used the incident
again in an address to the Nightingale Probationers (1883). A few days
later (Nov. 18, 1882) there was a Royal Review, on the Horse Guards
Parade, of the troops returned from the Egyptian campaign, and Miss
Nightingale was present, at Mr. Gladstone's invitation, on a stand
erected in the Prime Minister's garden. She was seated between him and
Mrs. Gladstone, and Mrs. Gladstone, in recalling the occasion, used to
say that "there were tears in Miss Nightingale's dear eyes as the poor
ragged fellows marched past." Her presence on this occasion was
observed, and she was invited accordingly to attend the opening of the
new Law Courts by the Queen (Dec. 4). She was given a place on the dais,
and the Queen, noticing her, sent a message to say "how pleased she was
to see Miss Nightingale there, looking well."
Lord Wolseley's Egyptian campaign of 1882 was short and sharp, and from
the combative point of view admirably managed, but there was a good deal
of sickness among the soldiers. The fighting during these years
(1880-82), both in South Africa and in Egypt, put to the test the
re-organizations of the Army Medical and Hospital Service which had taken
place since Miss Nightingale was "in office" with Sidney Herbert. The
result of the test was far from satisfactory. There were, indeed, no
scandals on the scale of the Crimean War, and the death-rate during the
Egyptian campaign may fairly be cited as proof that great improvements
had been effected since that time.[202] But there were grave defects,
and Miss Nightingale played an active part both in bringing them to
light and in striving for their prevention in future. She was in close
touch with the hospital arrangements both in Natal and in Egypt through
her friends among the lady nurses and lady visitors. From Natal, one of
the latter, Mrs. Hawthorn, had sent her many particulars, supported by
evidence, of neglect in the hospitals. Miss Nightingale wrote a
memorandum on the subject, which she submitted, again through Sir Harry
Verney, to the Secretary for War. Mr. Childers appointed a Court of
Inquiry (June 1882), presided over by Sir Evelyn Wood, to investigate
the charges. The Committee reported that "improvements in the system of
nursing are both practicable and desirable." "This is rather a mild
opinion," wrote Sir Robert Loyd Lindsay (Lord Wantage) to Miss
Nightingale (Oct. 23, 1882), "considering that all the independent
evidence went to show that the orderlies were often drunk and riotous,
that they ate the rations of the sick, and left the nursing of the
patients to the convalescents." The Egyptian campaign followed, and many
cases of neglect were alleged. The Committee was reconstituted (Oct.
1882) on an enlarged basis, under the chairmanship of the Earl of
Morley, with instructions to inquire, with special reference to the
Egyptian campaign, into the organization of the Army Hospital Corps and
the whole question of hospital management and nursing in the field. Miss
Nightingale had a close ally during this inquiry in Lord Wantage, who
was a member of the Committee. She suggested witnesses to him; and sent
him elaborate briefs for their examination. She was furnished day by day
with the minutes of evidence; and when the time came for preparing the
Report, she wrote successive papers of suggestions, which Lord Wantage
submitted to the Chairman. "I think," wrote Lord Wantage (May 5, 1883),
"that the Report, although dealing with details, and not going much
beyond them, will be of service. And I am bound to say many of the best
suggestions come from you, and for these I beg to thank you most
sincerely"; and, again, in sending her an early proof of the Report
(June 12): "I can only repeat once more how valuable your aid was to me
during the enquiry. If the Secretary of State carries out the Report,
some of the most useful improvements will have originated with you."
[202] The rate was 24.39 per 1000.
Miss Nightingale found in the evidence a justification of her
forebodings during past years. It disclosed evils comparable in kind,
though not in extent, to those at Scutari and in the Crimea.[203]
Supplies procurable had not been procured. Hospital equipment was
incomplete. The cooking was defective, and so forth. These defects were
due, Miss Nightingale considered, to the undoing of Sidney Herbert's
work. The Purveyor's Department, reorganized by him and her, had been
abolished. For the rest, their whole scheme of reorganization had been
based on the regimental system, which had now been abandoned for a
unitary system, though in time of war some return to the former was a
necessity. Miss Nightingale did not wholly condemn these changes in
themselves. What she complained of was that they had not been thought
out in all the details or in terms of war. This was what she meant when
she noted the progress of reorganization during previous years, and
pronounced it lacking in administrative skill.[204] She now said that
the changes must be accepted, and threw herself into the work of lending
aid towards improvement. She saw and corresponded with the
Director-General of the Army Medical Department, Dr. T. Crawford, than
whom, she said, "we have not had such a man of unflagging energy since
Alexander."[205] She made friends with many other army doctors. Among
them was Surgeon-Major G. J. H. Evatt, who had seen service in India,
and was now at the Royal Military Academy. He assisted Miss Nightingale
in suggestions for the reorganization of the Army Hospital Corps in
India, which she sent to Lord Ripon. She was consulted on revised
regulations for various branches of the medical service. She was in
constant communication with her old associates, Captain Galton and Dr.
Sutherland, and she urged the former to keep the question of reform to
the front by writing in the papers and magazines.
[203] See especially the evidence of Lord Wolseley himself, summarized
at pp. 35-36 of the _Report of the Army Hospital Services Inquiry
Committee_, 1883.
[204] Her points may be followed in detail in the article referred to
below, p. 340, _n._
[205] Letter to Captain Galton, Nov. 28, 1883.
VI
In the middle of 1883 Miss Nightingale was in the thick of her two main
preoccupations--the defence of Lord Ripon's Indian policy and the reform
of the Army Hospital Service--when an opportunity came to her for
putting in a word on behalf of each of these causes in the highest
quarter. The decoration of the Royal Red Cross had been instituted by
Royal Warrant on April 23, 1883, and Miss Nightingale's attendance was
requested at Windsor on July 5 to receive the decoration for her
"special exertions in providing for the nursing of the sick and wounded
soldiers and sailors." She was invited to dine and sleep at the castle
on the occasion. The Queen, whose observant eye had noticed at the
opening of the Law Courts that Miss Nightingale was attended by Sir
Harry Verney, hoped that he would again accompany her. The state of her
health compelled Miss Nightingale to decline the invitation[206]; with
the greater reluctance because there were two subjects--India and the
Army Medical Service--on which the Queen had permitted her to speak on a
previous occasion and on which she would now have highly prized the
opportunity of speaking again. She begged to be permitted to write to
Her Majesty instead. The permission was given, and Miss Nightingale sent
a letter upon the state of the Army Medical and Hospital Services. A
second letter contained an expository vindication of Lord Ripon's Indian
measures. In this connection it had been intimated to Miss Nightingale
by a friend that she would do well to describe in a few words what the
Ilbert Bill really was. The Queen had doubtless read voluminous
dispatches "about it and about," and perhaps been addressed on the
subject by copious Ministers "as if she were a public meeting," and like
the greater number of her subjects may have felt little the wiser. Miss
Nightingale condensed into the following words the nature of the Bill
and the case for it: "The so-called 'Ilbert Bill' is intended to give
limited powers to try Europeans, outside of the Presidency towns, to
Native Magistrates and Judges who, after long trial of their judicial
qualification, in corresponding positions, have shown themselves worthy
to be entrusted with this duty and have risen to that grade where for
their official responsibility such powers are required. It is no new
experiment, but has been tried on the Bench of the High Courts and in
the Chief Magistracies of the Presidency towns." Miss Nightingale then
went on to refer to the Queen's "noble proclamation" of 1858, and to
connect the Ilbert Bill with it. "The Queen has proclaimed that she will
admit the natives of India to share in the government of that country
without distinction of race and creed. She has invited them to educate
themselves to qualify for her service as Englishmen do. In face of the
greatest difficulties they have in competition with our ablest young men
gained honourable place, and by trial in long service have proved
themselves efficient and trustworthy." It would be disastrous, Miss
Nightingale went on to argue, if, in deference to clamour, the Queen's
Government were to draw back from giving effect to Her Majesty's
gracious assurances:--
(_Sir Henry Ponsonby to Miss Nightingale._) OSBORNE, _August 13
[1883]_. The Queen hopes you will forgive her for not answering
your letters herself. Her Majesty has been so constantly
interrupted in writing that she has entrusted to me the duty of
conveying to you her thanks for the two very interesting
communications you have been good enough to address to Her Majesty.
With regard to the "Ilbert Bill" which is now being so vehemently
discussed, The Queen cannot but deplore the acrimony with which the
question has been treated; but as it is a matter under the
consideration of Her Majesty's Government, The Queen is unwilling
to express any opinion upon the measure at present.
It gave The Queen sincere pleasure to confer the decoration of the
Royal Red Cross upon you, who have worked so hard and who have
effected so much in the Sanitary Departments of the Army, and The
Queen is very grateful for your observations on the Military
Medical questions, and has read with much interest the paper in the
_Fortnightly Review_[207] to which you called her attention. Her
Majesty considers your remarks of the highest value, and fully
concurs in your opinion that the Hospital Services should be
carried out in a manner calculated to relieve the Medical officer
from the care of details not belonging to his Medical work. The
abolition of the Purveyor's Department and the change from the
Regimental to the General system--which The Queen much
regrets--were both effected on the recommendation of the Medical
officers, and The Queen observes that those who gave evidence
before the late Committee of Enquiry consider these steps to have
improved the efficiency of their Department. These matters have
been prominently brought to Her Majesty's notice lately, as the
selection of a new Commandant to Netley Hospital is now under
consideration, and the comparative advantages of naming a Combatant
or Medical officer are being discussed.
The Queen was extremely sorry to have missed the opportunity of
seeing you at Windsor, but trusts that on some future occasion she
may be more fortunate. I am to repeat to you Her Majesty's thanks
for your letters, and to assure you that The Queen will always be
glad to receive any communications from you.
[206] The decoration was accordingly sent to her by the Secretary of
State on July 17. It is now placed, in accordance with directions
in Miss Nightingale's Will, in the Museum of the United Service
Institution.
[207] "The Army Hospital Service," by Captain Douglas Galton, in the
_Review_ of July 1, 1883.
The practical interest which Queen Victoria took in Army matters may
have been a factor in the prompt attempt to remedy the evils to which
Miss Nightingale had called attention. In the following year Miss
Nightingale obtained, through Lord Wantage, a statement from the War
Office (Oct. 17, 1884) "showing how far the recommendations of Lord
Morley's Committee had been carried out." There were very few of the
evils left unremedied--at any rate on paper.
There was one feature of the Hospital Service upon which the inquiries
above mentioned threw nothing but praise, and that was the female
nursing. Lord Wolseley, whose service dated back, like Miss
Nightingale's, to the Crimean War, was particularly emphatic on this
point. "I have always thought," he said, "that the presence of lady
nurses in our military hospitals was a matter of the first consequence.
When, as a General, I have inspected hospitals, I always felt I could
not really 'get at' the patients; few men would dare to speak against
the orderlies of a hospital, no matter how you may question them, but
they would tell what they think very freely to a lady nurse who is
attendant upon them. Apart from the incalculable boon which the care
and kindness of such ladies confers upon the sick or wounded soldier, I
regard their presence in all our hospitals as a most wholesome check
upon the whole personnel in them. I am sure that the patients in a ward
where there was a lady nurse would always receive the wine, food, etc.,
ordered them by the doctor, and the irregularities of the orderlies,
such as those complained of by Mrs. Hawthorn, could not take place. I am
therefore of opinion that it was very wrong to have prevented that lady
from entering the wards at Pietermaritzburg, and I think it would be
desirable to call attention in the Queen's Regulations to the great
advantage of procuring the aid of lady nurses at all stations, both in
peace and war."[208] All this is precisely the doctrine preached by Miss
Nightingale when she said that the most important function of the female
nurse was the education of the male orderly. Lord Wolseley, in the
Memorandum just quoted, was speaking from personal experience in South
Africa. Subsequent experience in Egypt confirmed his opinions, and in
his evidence before the later Committee of Inquiry he was even more
emphatic. "The employment of lady nurses to a very large extent in every
hospital on service" was the surest way to efficiency. The female nurses
at Cairo, Ismailia, and Alexandria were of the "greatest assistance."
"It was delightful to go into a ward where there was a female nurse.
Their presence made the greatest difference." "If I might so describe
them, although it is not perhaps a complimentary way of describing them,
they are the best spies in the hospital upon everybody."[209]
[208] Memorandum by the Adjutant-General printed at p. 1 of _Proceedings
of a Court of Inquiry into the Army Hospital Corps employed in
South Africa, War Office, June 1882_.
[209] See Questions 6166, 6214, 6215.
VII
The nurses were soon to have another opportunity of proving their
usefulness; but we must first return, with Miss Nightingale, to Lord
Ripon's Indian reforms, the fate of which was in the middle of 1883
still uncertain. "Which way," she wrote to friends likely to know, "do
you think the storm is going?" She had urged the Viceroy "not to yield
to the storm which raged round him," and he had assured her that he had
no inclination whatever to do so, though he would not be unwilling to
admit reasonable amendments to his proposals. The Viceroy's letters
showed Miss Nightingale that his policy would need all the support that
those in England who agreed with it could give. The storm-centre was the
Ilbert Bill, and Lord Ripon's letter had prepared Miss Nightingale for
coming events. "Reasonable amendments" were ultimately accepted, and the
"Ilbert Bill" was passed (Jan. 1884). The compromise was that Europeans
tried before native judges should have the right of claiming a jury.
"The so-called compromise is, in fact, a surrender," wrote one of Miss
Nightingale's Radical friends; but for her part she held that the
Viceroy had wisely yielded somewhat on a less important point, in order
to improve the prospects of his more important measures. With these,
from time to time, Lord Ripon reported satisfactory progress. After some
difficulties with the India Office, he was allowed to establish an
Agricultural Department in Bengal. The prospects of the Land Tenure
Bills were favourable.[210] The local self-government Bills were passed.
Educational reforms had been made. Then, presently, it was announced in
London that Lord Ripon had resigned and would shortly return to England.
Miss Nightingale was much perturbed, and accused her friend of
"deserting the Empire." Lord Ripon in reply sent her a long letter of
explanation, the gist of which was that he had exhausted his powers of
usefulness in India, and that, by retiring now instead of serving his
full term, he would be more likely to obtain a sympathetic successor.
The successor was soon appointed, and early in November Lord Dufferin
came to see Miss Nightingale. "My visit from Lord Dufferin," she wrote
to Dr. Sutherland (Nov. 6), "took place yesterday. We went over many
things--Sanitation, Land Tenure, Agriculture, Civil Service, etc. etc.
And I am to send him a Note of each. But about sanitary things he says
he is perfectly ignorant, especially of Indian sanitary things. But he
says, 'Give me your instructions and I will obey them. I will study them
on my way out. Send me what you think. Supply the powder and I will fire
the shot.' Give me quickly what instructions you think I should send
him." This letter reached Dr. Sutherland on a Friday, and she had
commanded him to send in his notes "before Monday." But, as ill luck had
it, the Doctor was busy "in working at the cholera bacillus with a
beautiful Vienna microscope purchased with this object." That would
occupy him on Friday and Saturday, and Sunday was Sunday; so "the
Viceroy must wait." The reader who remembers an earlier chapter will be
able to imagine Miss Nightingale's wrath. Notes and telegrams, now
withering, now pleading, followed fast upon each other. "I did not know
the bacillus was of more consequence than a Viceroy." "If you did a
little on Sunday, the Recording Angel would drop not a tear but a
smile." But Dr. Sutherland was not to be cajoled into abandoning either
his science or his Sabbatarianism; and on the former point he put in a
very good plea in mitigation of judgment. If Dr. Koch's cholera bacillus
turned out well, the discovery would save many more lives than Lord
Dufferin, however carefully instructed, was likely to do. Miss
Nightingale did not believe in the bacillus but allowed herself to be
appeased, especially as it turned out that Lord Dufferin was not leaving
London till a day or two later than she had supposed. So, she and Dr.
Sutherland collaborated in indoctrinating their fifth Viceroy in the
truths of their Sanitary gospel. There is a formidable list in her hand
of "Papers for Lord Dufferin." As he was as good as his word, he must
have had a strenuous voyage. On starting he sent to her one of his
pretty little letters:--
(_Lord Dufferin to Miss Nightingale._) S.S. "TASMANIA," _Nov._ 13
[1884]. MY DEAR MISS NIGHTINGALE--I duly received the papers you
were good enough to send me, and you may be quite sure of my
studying them with the attention they deserve. I well know how well
entitled you are to speak with authority in reference to Indian
questions, and I can well believe that you have thought out many
conclusions which it would be of the greatest benefit to me to
ponder over. I hope you will forgive me for adding that one of the
pleasantest "sweets of office" I have yet tasted has been the
privilege I acquired of coming to pay you that little visit.
[210] They were ultimately passed with some amendment by Lord Ripon's
successor.
Meanwhile, Miss Nightingale, in the hope of completing the new Viceroy's
education, had written an account of her interview to Lord Ripon, so
that when they met he might know on what points his successor most
needed indoctrinating. Lord Dufferin had not long been gone when an
opportunity offered itself for another effort at evangelization. At the
end of November Mr. Gladstone called upon Miss Nightingale. He had come
without an appointment, and she was unable to see him; but assuming, for
her purpose, that he had proposed to discuss Indian questions, she sent
him a written statement of her views on various matters, and asked leave
to write again with more special reference to Lord Ripon's splendid
record. Mr. Gladstone thanked her (Dec. 6) for the valuable letter; said
that the best use he could make of it would be to commend it to the
attention of Lord Kimberley[211]; and added that he would be very glad
to hear her views about Lord Ripon's administration. She had wanted to
interest Mr. Gladstone, and was disappointed that he had only passed her
letter on to Lord Kimberley, who, she thought, meant the India Council,
a body not sympathetic to the Ripon policy. But, as she had been given
the opening, she made another attempt. Mr. Gladstone was, of course, in
general sympathy with Lord Ripon, but she wanted the Prime Minister to
give greater prominence and emphasis to Indian internal reforms in his
speeches. She did not succeed. "I wish I could hope," wrote a friend who
knew both India and Mr. Gladstone well (Jan. 4, 1885), "that you could
make some real impression on him; but at his age and at this time, when
his hands are so full, what can you expect? He has never given his mind
to India, and it is too late now." It was not only Mr. Gladstone who was
preoccupied at this time with other things than the welfare of the
Indian peoples. Miss Nightingale soon discovered this. Lord Ripon was
nearly due in England. He ought, she said, to receive a popular welcome
as enthusiastic as any accorded to a conquering General. As there were
no signs of any preparation in that sort, she worked very hard, though
with very little success, to organize a welcome in the form of laudatory
articles in various newspapers and reviews.[212] She herself wrote an
enthusiastic appreciation, but she was unwilling to sign it. The editors
were willing to publish anything to which Miss Florence Nightingale
would give her name, but for articles in praise of Lord Ripon's policy
without that attraction there was no demand. As soon as it was disclosed
that what was offered was only an unsigned article, or an article signed
by some nominee of hers, the editors, with one consent, discovered that
exigencies of space prevented its insertion. And this was not
surprising; for Khartoum had fallen, and the Government was tottering.
Miss Nightingale was as keenly interested as any one else in those
things; but there were few beside herself to whom the standing problems
of Indian administration were matters of "life and death," no less
passionately interesting than the fate of a hero or the fall of a
ministry.
[211] Who had been transferred from the Colonial to the India Office in
December 1882.
[212] The only success was with the _Pall Mall Gazette_, which published
a welcoming article (by Mr. F. Verney) on January 22.
VIII
Lord Wolseley had been appointed to command a Gordon Relief Expedition
in August 1884. There were already female nurses in Egypt. Some had been
retained at Cairo after the Arabi Campaign of 1882. Others had been sent
to Suakin during the "military operations" of 1883. More were now sent
by the Government, and some were ordered up the Nile to Wady Halfa. Miss
Nightingale felt this to be a great event. "Luther says," she wrote to
Miss Pringle (Claydon, Oct. 11, 1884), "that he looks and sees the
firmament which God has made without pillars, and we wretched men are
always afraid that it will tumble down unless we make our little pillars
half a foot high. It is 34 years since I was at Wady Halfa. How little I
could ever have thought that there would be trained nurses now there! O
faithless me, that think God cannot make His firmament without
pillars." But Miss Nightingale's religion enjoined, as we know, "working
with God." The ultimate issue did not rest upon the little pillars; but
they must be set up for what they are worth none the less, and Miss
Nightingale threw herself, heart and soul, into forwarding the Egyptian
nursing campaign. Presently more nurses were sent out on private
initiative--some by the National Aid Society, others by a committee of
ladies. On February 20, 1885, Lady Rosebery called at South Street. She
and Mrs. Gladstone and Lady Salisbury, and other ladies, with the
Princess of Wales, were proposing to establish a Committee of their own
to send additional comforts for the sick and wounded, as well as
additional nurses. In order to secure unity of administration, and in
loyalty to Lord Wantage's Society, Miss Nightingale advised against any
separate organization, and the Committee, which she then agreed to join,
was reconstituted as "The Princess of Wales's Branch of the National Aid
Society." The Superintendent of the nurses sent out by the Government
was one of Miss Nightingale's dearest pupils, Miss Rachel Williams,
whose acquaintance we have made already under her pet-name of "The
Goddess." She had been in indifferent health and much worried. She
stayed in South Street while arrangements were pending, and Miss
Nightingale announced the departure to Miss Pringle (March 4): "Our
darling has started this morning by the _Navarino_ with seven nurses for
Suez. If you had seen, as I did, how, the moment it was settled that she
was to have this work, the cloud and the load were lifted off her, and
she became again the Goddess and her youth returned, you would have
felt, as she said, that Providential Goodness had opened and guided
every step of her way. As soon as her appointment was made she looked as
beautiful and bonny as ever."
The rapidity of Miss Nightingale's decision, her memory for matters of
detail, her thoughtfulness for others even in trivial things, her
kindliness of heart interlacing the practical instinct, the mingled
playfulness and gravity of her manner--these things are all illustrated
in the reminiscences of another member of the party which sailed for
Egypt in the _Navarino_:--
I was then Sister of one of the surgical wards at King's College
Hospital. It was on a Saturday in February, about midday, just as I
was due to attend the operation cases from my ward, that a
one-armed commissionaire appeared at the ward door: "A note for
Sister Philippa from Miss Nightingale," he said. The request it
contained was characteristic of the writer--decisive, yet kindly.
Would I leave in three days' time for service in the Soudan? if so,
I must be at her house for instructions on Monday at 8.30 A.M., at
Marlborough House to be interviewed by Queen Alexandra (then
Princess of Wales) at 11 A.M.; and immediately afterwards at
Messrs. Cappers, Gracechurch Street, to be fitted for my war
uniform. Would I also breakfast with her on Wednesday, so that she
"might check the fit of my uniform, and wish me God-speed." Months
afterwards, when the war was over, and we were quietly chatting
over things at Claydon, how she enjoyed hearing the numerous
trivial details of that three days' rush! Again and again she would
refer to that afternoon when I had to stand by the patient's side
in the operating theatre, mechanically waiting on the surgeons,
outwardly placid, yet inwardly, as I told her, in a fever of
excitement, not so much at the thought of going to the front, as at
the fact I had been chosen by her to follow in her footsteps.
On the Monday above referred to, punctually at half-past eight, I
arrived at South Street, wondering what my reception would be, but
before ten minutes had passed all wonder and speculation had given
place to unbounded admiration and (even at that early
acquaintanceship) affection for the warm-hearted old lady who
counselled me as a nurse, mothered me as an out-put from her Home,
and urged me to spare no point--myself specially--where the
soldiers were concerned. "Remember;" she said, "when you are far
away up-country, possibly the only English woman there, that those
men will note and remember your every action, not only as a nurse,
but as a woman; your life to them will be as the rings a pebble
makes when thrown into a pond--reaching far, reaching wide--each
ripple gone beyond your grasp, yet remembered almost to
exaggeration by those soldiers lying helpless in their sickness.
See that your every word and act is worthy of your profession and
your womanhood." Then she asked me to accept an india-rubber
travelling bath as "her parting gift to a one-time probationer who
had once reminded her that cleanliness was next to Godliness,"[213]
and in spite of the merry twinkle in her eye as she said this,
there were tears of anxious kindness as she added, "God guard you
in His safe keeping and make you worthy of His trust--our
soldiers."
I saw nothing more of her till Wednesday morning. The troop-ship in
which we were to go out left Tilbury Docks at 11 o'clock, and I was
to breakfast with Miss Nightingale at half-past seven. It was
rather a rush to manage it, but it was well worth any amount of
inconvenience to have that last hour with her, and it was a picture
that will always remain above all others in my memory. Propped up
in bed, the pillows framing her kindly face with its lace-covered
silvery hair, and twinkling eyes. I often think her sense of humour
must have been as strong a bond between her and the soldiers as her
sympathy was. The coffee, toast, eggs, and honey, "a real English
breakfast, dear child," she said, "and it is good to know you will
have honestly earned the next one you eat in England." "And suppose
I don't return to eat one at all?" I asked. "Well! you will have
earned that too, dear heart," she answered quietly. Who can be
surprised that we worshipped our Chief? Other nurses were going out
in the same ship as I, and when we entered our cabins we found a
bouquet of flowers for each of us, attached to which was "God-speed
from Florence Nightingale."
Six months after, in the glare and heat of an August afternoon,
when the Egyptian campaign was a thing of the past, a shipload of
sick and wounded soldiers glided slowly into the docks at
Southampton. While I was helping to transfer some of the most
serious cases to Netley, a telegram was handed to me. It was from
Miss Nightingale: "Am staying at Claydon, cleaners and painters in
possession of 10 South Street, but two rooms, Mrs. Neild [the
Housekeeper], and a warm welcome are awaiting your arrival there.
Use them as long as you wish." On arriving at South Street I found
it all just as she had said, and by the first post next day came a
letter from Claydon, _such_ a home welcome! It was well worth all
the heat and glare of a Soudan summer, all the absence of water,
and presence of insects, and the hundred and one other
uncomfortable things that flesh is heir to during similar
circumstances, to get such a letter of welcome as that. It ended up
with "make South Street your headquarters till your work is
finished" (there was much detail to complete in connection with the
National Aid Society before I could leave London), "and then come
to me at Claydon." So after a couple of weeks' work in London, I
went to Claydon, and there, during a month's rest in one of the
most beautiful of England's country homes, I learned to know and
understand Miss Nightingale, to realize what the friendship of a
character like hers means. "The essence of Friendship," says
Emerson, "is tenderness and trust." No words better describe our
Chief than these.
[213] The writer--Sister Philippa Hicks (Mrs. Large)--was the "cheeky
probationer" above quoted, p. 252. Afterwards matron of the Great
Ormond Street Children's Hospital (1888); founder of the first
"Co-operation for Nurses," at 8 New Cavendish Street (1892); gave
up nursing to be married (1898).
Sister Philippa was only one of the many war-nurses to whom their Chief
showed this tender friendship. During their service abroad, she was
constant in letters of encouragement and advice:--
(_To Miss Williams_, at SUEZ.) 10 SOUTH STREET, _July_ 3.... The
Orderlies are not hopeless but untrained. Government are now doing
all they can. In my day they _were_ hopeless. They place them now
under the Sisters. The great business of the Sisters _is_ to train
them. It is the more aggravating when there are so few Sisters that
they _can't_ give time to train these men who are essential in the
Field. O how I wish I could send you several Sisters at once! But I
am altogether puzzled. Your telegrams, which I suspect were not
dictated by you, say "Sufficient." Would that I could help you to
nurse the Typhoids! I am sure you _are_ doing great good among the
Orderlies, even tho' you do not know it. The very fact that they
see you think neglect a crime does good. How well I know their
fatal neglects with Typhoid cases! But 30 years ago women Nurses
were just as bad. See the difference now. There is a Miss Williams.
Cheer up: fight the good fight of faith. I need not say this to my
dear, for she _is_ fighting it. God bless her! When I am gone, she
will see the fruit of her labours. Three cheers for her! A Dieu. To
God I commend you. Would I were His servant as you are. I wonder
whether you have had my letters. I have written by every mail.[214]
(_To the same._) 10 SOUTH STREET, _July_ 17 [1885]. Yesterday the
Guards Camel Corps and the Heavies marched into London, after
having been reviewed by the Queen at Osborne. Sir Harry went to see
them inspected by the Commander-in-Chief at Wellington Barracks. (I
would have given anything to have seen the Meeting with their
comrades if I had been well enough to go.) And he said it was the
most affecting thing he ever saw. These were the men who marched
across the Bayuda Desert--a handful of men taking tender care of
their handful of wounded, attacked by twelve times their
number--and reached the Nile below Khartoum; but when the steamer
reached Khartoum, Khartoum had fallen and Gordon was dead. There is
a picture of Gordon called "The Last Watch," where he is watching
on the ramparts, the last night. It is very fine. He is unseen and
alone; there is the far-off look in his eyes of solemn happiness at
his reunion with God, so near, of deep grief for the poor black
populations whom he has to leave to their misery, and whom he has
failed to extricate; and yet of abiding, faithful trust in God that
He will do all things for the best. It was his constant
prayer--first for God's glory, then for these people's welfare, and
his own humiliation--that is, that he should feel the more, himself
being humbled, the indwelling God in himself. Have the little
_Lives of Gordon_ reached your men yet?[215]
[214] She had indeed, and more. I have counted the letters. There were
sixty-five to Miss Williams during her service in Egypt.
[215] Miss Nightingale had obtained leave to make a cheap reprint of Mr.
C. H. Allen's _Popular Life of General Gordon_ for free
distribution at her expense among the soldiers.
Florence Nightingale was living her Crimean life again in the life of
her pupils. Many a little incident recalled the old days to her. One of
the nurses wrote that in her hospital the supply of soap had given out.
"Send to Cairo," Miss Nightingale answered, "for any quantity you like,
and I'll pay, but only if you can do it without embroiling yourself with
the authorities." Another of her pupils was nursing in the Citadel
Hospital at Cairo. "I am on night duty now," she wrote, "and I don't
dislike it at all: in fact I enjoy trotting about this weird old place
all by myself in the solemnity of the night! and now and then hearing a
low voice saying, 'Sister, would you mind doing so and so,' 'Sister, can
you give me something to ease my face,' etc., etc., and then feeding the
hungry enteric patients at stated times who open their mouths in turn
like so many little birds!" The picture drawn in this letter, and the
zest which it showed, pleased Miss Nightingale greatly, and she passed
it on to old pupils at home. They were thrilled. Lucky Sybil! they said;
she is doing work like the Chief's at Scutari! another Lady with the
Lamp amid the glimmering gloom! And Miss Nightingale, who received from
the medical authorities of the Army most satisfactory reports on the
services rendered by her nurses, rejoiced in their successes and
usefulness. She would have smiled upon any pupil "at the first stroke
which passed what _she_ could do."
Yet with thankfulness that she had been able to show the way to others,
there was mingled something of the wistful regrets of old age. There was
much in the administrative conduct of the nursing service at the front
which she could have ordered better. There was a paragraph in a
newspaper about the attractions of "afternoon tea in the nurses' tent"
which pained her (though the reference here was not, I think, to any of
her own Nightingale nurses). Encouraging, cheery, helpful to others, she
was in herself sad and almost sombre. It was in vain that Mr. Jowett
still enjoined her to dwell upon all that she had been able to do, upon
the many blessings which had attended her work. "You will have felt
General Gordon's death," he wrote (Feb. 22), "as much as any one. What
poor creatures most of us seem in comparison with him! But not you, not
you!" But the note which she struck in her next Address to the
Probationers was all of humility. Old friends and comrades were dying.
In 1882 a dear friend of her girlhood--Madame Mohl--died in Paris. In
the same year Dr. Farr died--one of the founders in this country of her
favourite science of statistics, and an associate of hers in work with
Sidney Herbert. One of the most valued of her allies in later Indian
work--Sir Bartle Frere--died in 1884. In the previous year a yet older
friend, and one of her wisest counsellors--Sir John McNeill--had died.
He had sent her a copy of the last piece he wrote; the preface to a new
edition of Sir Alexander Tulloch's _Reply to the Chelsea Board_, in
which Sir John in turn replied to the version of that affair given by
Mr. Kinglake.[216] Her letter to him, sent "with the deepest affection
and veneration," was in a sombre vein. The correspondence recalled old
days, but again "How little permanent progress had been made!" She only,
she began to feel, was left; and she so unworthy! What opportunities she
had been given! How little use she had been able to make of them! There
were "dark nights of the soul" when such self-reproaches were grievous.
But some years of life would perhaps still be granted to her. She would
consecrate them the more devotedly to higher service. "To-day," she
wrote (Christmas Day, 1885), "let me dedicate this poor old crumbling
woman to Thee. Behold the handmaid of the Lord. I was Thy handmaid as a
girl. How have I back-slidden!"
[216] See on this subject, Vol. I. p. 337.